US 4th Armored Division

The US 4th Armored Division was an armored division of the US Army that was active from 1941 to 1972. The division was activated at Pine Camp, New York on 15 April 1941, and it had 10,000 men by the end of May 1941. From January to July 1944, the division was trained in England, and it was later deployed to France at Utah Beach on 11 July 1944. The 4th Armored Division served as the spearhead of George S. Patton's US Third Army during World War II. The division took part in the capture of Coutances during Operation Cobra before driving into Brittany and taking Nantes, and the division advanced to the Moselle in eastern France in November 1944. On 21 November, the division crossed the Saar River into Germany, and the division later fought at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. On 24-25 March 1945, the division crossed the Rhine and took Lauterbach on 29 March, Creuzburg on 1 April, and Gotha on 4 April (becoming the first unit to liberate a Nazi concentration camp, at Ohrdruf) before entering Czechoslovakia on 6 May. The forward elements reached Pisek as the division pursued retreating German forces. The division was inactivated in West Germany in 1972.